1 One are = 100 square metres.
1 The parfaits (parfait = perfect) or bonshommes (bonhomme = goodman) were an Cite, the most uncompromising among the Albigensian communities.
1 iii.67: for Raymonde Belot’s unprosperous marriages, see pp. 42–3. We should not be misled by the fact that she shares a name with the comparatively rich ‘House of Belot’.
1 One hectare = 2.47 acres.
2 ii.380. See also ii.276 (tithes etc.); iii.160 (village square).
1 During the years with which we are concerned, the agents of the King of France in Languedoc acted with extraordinary brutality towards the neighbouring Comté de Foix, virtually reducing it to the rank of a satellite. It did not recover its freedom of manoeuvre until later in the fourteenth century.
1 On Sabarthès, see below, Chapter XVII.
2 Duvernoy (1961), p. 18 (Luzenac).
1 Ariège departmental archives, J 79.
1 A livre tournois, i.e. a livre minted at Tours, equalled 20 sous; a livre parisis, i.e. a livre minted at Paris, equalled 25 sous.
2 These forests, fallow lands and heaths, which later fell into royal and communal hands, correspond, according to the Land Register of 1827 preserved in the present-day town-hall of Montaillou, to the 255 hectares of forest recorded by the Ministére des Eaux et Forêts and to the 430 hectares of ‘communal’ or common land. The ancient manorial estate, in fields and meadows (excluding forests, which I have counted above), corresponds to a property of 37 hectares belonging to a M. Gély, whose family, by purchase and inheritance, came into the estate in 1827. The properties of a few inhabitants of Montaillou described in 1827 as ‘proprietors’ (resident and usually working the land themselves), among whom were the Clergue and the Bailie families, consisted of between 8 and 12 hectares each. Those of what are described as ‘farmers’ consisted of 2 hectares, and those of labourers one hectare or less. In 1827 the farmers formed the majority of the population of Montaillou, the labourers an important minority.
1 Unfortunately, there is insufficient documentary evidence to form an assessment of manorial dues in Montaillou between 1300 and 1320.
1 For his curious theories on the demography of the souls of the dead see i. 191.